


of guides and guardians

by Spring_Emerald



Series: it's only words [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 07:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12360972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spring_Emerald/pseuds/Spring_Emerald
Summary: “Oh my god…” Daichi heaves, calming his rapidly beating heart.The man hums and says “That’s quite right. Thanks for the offering by the way. It’s been a long time since I had mackerel.”





	of guides and guardians

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kythen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/gifts).



> Requested by kythen for the ship + word writing meme.  
> KuroDai + storm
> 
> A fair warning: I am not a cat's human, nor do I hike, so if this is full of inaccuracies, i sincerely apologize. 
> 
> Enjoy! :D

Daichi worryingly looks up at the darkening clouds, when another rumble of thunder rolled across the sky. The weather forecast this morning said nothing about rain or isolated thunderstorms. He double checked before he left his home, confident that it would be a good day for mountain climbing.

But, he must really be a very unfortunate _ameotoko_ , because he just didn’t bring the rain with him, he brought along lightning and thunder too. Not wasting any more time bemoaning his circumstance, he carefully follows the trail back to the foot of the mountain, eager to get down before the rain pours.

He flinches when a flash of lightning cut through the sky, followed by an ominous loud crack of thunder and then big, fat raindrops started to fall, harshly hitting the ground. Daichi grabs hold of the trunk of the tree beside him, careful not to slip on the trail.

“Really?” He gives the sky a frustrated look and receives a dull rumble in return.

He moves further into the tree, trying to stay dry under its canopy of leaves, despite knowing that it’s going to be futile soon enough. He’ll take all the moments he can stay dry, as he thinks if there is a nearby place where he can take shelter from the storm. He’s only halfway down the mountain, and he doesn’t want to risk the journey down, not when the trail has gotten muddy and slippery. Better be wet than injured.

He almost resigns himself to fate, and is already willing to wait out for the storm under the tree he’s in, when lightning strikes once again. He sees the flash of light even behind his eyelids and thinks that it must have been one hell of lightning to have that kind of effect.

When he opens his eyes, he sees a calico cat sitting up straight between two trees, a few steps away from him. Its eyes, as far as Daichi could tell, are focused on him, and he has to blink a few times just to make sure.

Now, Daichi doesn’t know much about cats, him being a certified dog person, but he knows a thing or two about feline behavior, especially its similarities with canines. For one, he’s pretty sure that they dislike loud noises, and would hide in the event of such. And he might not be that familiar with cat breeds, but he thinks calicos are domestic cats, and wouldn’t be caught sauntering at mountains.

 _This_ cat doesn’t seem to mind the noise or being in the mountain. In fact, it looks taken care of and not aggressive. Actually, it seemed kind of… bored _._ The only thing quite unnerving about it, is how intelligent its eyes are looking straight at him.

After a few moments of standing at what could be considered an impasse, the cat meows then stands on all of its legs and starts to walk away. It’s a few steps away when it pauses, turns its head to look at Daichi, seemingly irritated that he hadn’t followed, and meows loudly once again.

“You… want me to follow you?” He asks, a feels quite dumb for doing so. But then he thinks the cat rolled its eyes at him- if that is even possible, and felt even dumber.

The cat meows in what sounded like a dull ‘ _duh_ ’ in Daichi’s head, before it starts walking away again, not particularly caring if Daichi’s following or not.

Daichi, despite spending most of his childhood in the care of his grandparents and living in a rural town, is not highly superstitious. But he’d be a fool if he wouldn’t take the sudden appearance of cat in the middle of a mountain as some sort of a sign.

Against logical judgment and more of intuitive feeling, he follows the cat.

\-----

The cat led him away from the trail, and Daichi thinks that it is taking him to the other side of the mountain. A few steps back, the path they’re walking on slowly felt harder and less slippery under his wet feet, and the trees are getting sparser, the further they go and are replaced by rocky walls. When the cat turns to the right and disappears, only did it occur to Daichi that it had taken him to a cave.

He quickens his steps and he finds himself standing in front of the opening of a cave. He walks inside, just a few steps in, still within the range of the dull daylight, and sighs in relief that he’s not being battered by the heavy rain and strong wind. Not that it would do much, seeing as he’s completely wet down to his underwear. It’s a good thing that he’s brought his usual pack instead of the lighter one, because he knows for certain that he at least have extra clothes.

He had opted to take out the rain gear that is usually packed, in favor of bringing more water and making space for an insulated lunch bag. He’s learned a valuable lesson, but there isn’t much that he can do right now. He takes off his backpack and puts it down against the wall. He kneels in front of it and opens it, taking out a towel and starts drying himself, looking around the cave as he did so.

It’s dark and quite spooky, and he thinks that it goes deeper than he could see. It’s then that he realizes that he couldn’t find the cat that led him there. He takes out the flashlight, pushes the switch up to open it and points it inside the cave.

Daichi almost jumps out of his skin in fright when it lands directly at the cat, its eyes, two points of orbs glowing sinister in the dark. The cat, who’s already sitting languidly on top of a raised rock with its legs folded under it, meows in annoyance at being suddenly illuminated. Daichi immediately points the flashlight down.

“Sorry,” he mutters sheepishly. He doubts the cat heard him, because a gust of wind blows outside and it’s quite strong because some of it made its way inside the cave, making Daichi shiver from the cold. He moves the light around the cave, careful not to point it at the cat’s direction. He points it forward and he sees a wooden house-like structure, sitting on top of a flat slab of stone at the end of the cave. He moves the flashlight side-to-side, and sees that on each side are small stone lanterns.

Daichi’s jaw drops open upon realizing that the cave is actually a shrine. An old, probably forgotten one, but a shrine nevertheless.

“I don’t have anything to offer,” he says to the cat weakly. The cat blinks, before it stands and jumps down from the rock and walks to where he left his pack and paws at it. Daichi remembers the grilled mackerel he had prepared as his meal. He walks back to his pack and takes the insulated lunch bag.

The smoky smell of the fish wafted around the cave for a moment when he unwrapped the aluminum foil and puts it in front of the shrine. He then puts his hands together as he close his eyes, offering a short prayer.

He takes another one, unwraps it and places it in front of the calico cat that had settled back on the rock it had previously rested on.

“Thank you,” he tells the cat gently.  

“You are most _definitely_ welcome.”

Daichi jumps with a scream and he falls on his behind. The inside of the stone lantern burst into the flames, and rows of hanging lanterns on each side of the cave does the same in order, beginning from the ones closest to the shrine up to the ones closest to the mouth of the cave.

“Oh my god…” Daichi heaves, calming his rapidly beating heart.

Standing beside the raised rock, stroking the cat who’s contently eating its meal, is a tall man with messy black hair. His bangs are partially covering the right side of his face, while the rest is sticking out in all direction, giving the impression of someone who just rolled out of bed. He’s wearing a red _kosode_ and a black _hakama_ under a red _haori_.

The man hums and says “That’s quite right. Thanks for the offering by the way. It’s been a long time since I had mackerel.”

Daichi gapes at the…man? No. That’s not quite right. A simple man wouldn’t just appear out of nowhere. And what did he say? ‘Quite right’? Daichi just said ‘Oh my’…oh.

 _Oh_.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he says. But the smirk on his face tells otherwise. This smug expression makes Daichi shut his mouth close and frown at the… _god_.

 _Right_ , Daichi thinks. But he knows better than to make a god angry. “I didn’t mean to intrude in your shrine.”

“Nah.” He waves a dismissing hand in front of him. “It’s not intruding when something led you here.” He tilts his head pointedly at the direction of the happily eating cat.

Daichi only nods his head.

“Ah. I’m Kuroo, the guardian deity of this mountain,” he introduces, his free hand over his chest as he gives Daichi a small bow of his head. “Forgive me. It’s been a while since a human wandered around here.”

Daichi blinks and promptly blushes, but decidedly ignores the last bit. “I’m Sawamura Daichi. A human, as you can already tell.” He wants to know how long ‘a while’ was, but he doesn’t think the god will appreciate his meddling. But, he informs the god as to why humans don’t wander a lot around this part of the mountain.

“Well, that explains the lack of worshippers for the last century or so,” Kuroo says, grabbing the proffered meal on his shrine, and sits in front of the rock and leans against it. He’s about to dig in, when he notice Daichi’s wide eyed expression.

“Would you like to join me?”

Daichi’s about to reply, when the urge to sneeze came to him, and he is unable to hold it back.

“Excuse me,” he sniffs, wiping his nose on the sleeves of his shirt, and then just remembering that he still hadn’t changed his clothes.

“You should probably change out of your wet clothes,” Kuroo inputs astutely. “My godly powers, as great as they are don’t allow me to heal human, unfortunately.”

“Right…” Daichi stands up, dusts his pants, and walks to his pack. He’s taken off his shirt, and is in the process of drying his chest when he feels some sort of intensity boring at his back. He glances behind him, and he sees Kuroo intently watching him.

He turns his head away and hastily puts on his spare shirt. He’s supposed to change his pants and his underwear as well, but the current audience is making him self-conscious. And it’s silly, since he’s spend majority of his time changing in front of other guys during high school and a better part of college, when he was part of the volleyball team. This shouldn’t bother him, but it does. He doesn’t comment on it, but wraps the towel around his waist, to give some semblance of decency as he changes.

Once he’s done, he lays out his clothes on the ground to at least dry them out before he puts it inside his pack. He goes back to where Kuroo is and sits in front of him, reaching out for the last piece of grilled mackerel while he does so. After saying his thanks, they begin eating.

Over the course of their simple meal, Daichi learned that Kurro’s shrine used to be very sacred to hunters, and it’s one of the reasons why it’s hard to come by. It’s a place of worship that they had to find. Cats are also his sacred animal, since back then, they were the companions of the hunters. He’s also learned that Kuroo’s favorite offering is mackerel.

Daichi doesn’t know what to make out of the striking coincidences, so he just keeps his observations to himself, and instead tells Kuroo about how civilization has changed and how the famous shrines and temples found in the cities are being visited by people from other countries.

They kept conversing, with Daichi not knowing that the thunder storm had petered out, and that the late afternoon sun is already back in the sky once again. He wouldn’t have noticed it, until Kuroo pointed it out.

“It was nice to have your company, Sawamura,” he says as Daichi shoulders his backpack, ready to head out and trek down the mountain.

Daichi feels hesitant to leave Kuroo alone, especially after knowing what he knows now. “I’ll come back here,” he promises. “And then, if you’re allowed to leave the mountain to travel, then maybe I can show you around.”

“I’d like that,” he replies with smile.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry for the abrupt ending... OTL
> 
> But hey, if you made it this far, then thank you so much! You're the best!!


End file.
